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Thursday, September 10, 2015

'Amazing Stories', 30th anniversary

I have been searching for a new television series to blog
about. It had be something retro—something without a lot of current coverage on
the internet. It had to be something with a manageable running time–i.e.
something short-lived so I can watch and review each episode without taking
years. It also had to be something I liked enough to be motivated to do it.

But perhaps most important of all, I wanted to pick a series
that is long overdue for a re-examination—one that perhaps did not get a fair
shake the first time around from either critics or fans. Two recent examples of
shows like this are the underrated “Revolution”, mishandled and abandoned by
NBC because it was produced by another production company, and “Caprica”,
rejected by fans for not being a clone of “Battlestar Galactica.”

Maybe I will take on those two shows some time in the
future, but for now I wanted to go back a bit further in time, and given the
recent “Fantasy Island” and “Outer Limits” binge I have been on, I was leaning
toward an anthology.

The show I have chosen to blog about and do a weekly episode
by episode review of is “Amazing Stories”.

For those of you too young to remember parachute pants or
The Human League—or perhaps preoccupied with actually living life back in
1985—here is the backstory on “Amazing Stories”.

One of the most hyped pop culture television events of the
1980’s, "Amazing Stories" was created by Steven Spielberg and premiered
on NBC in September 1985 with the 30 minute episode "Ghost Train",
directed by the man himself. Critics were absolutely savage. I still recall
Rona Barret on Entertainment Tonight raging angrily—railing against the
director, accusing him of "showing off" his technical skills with a
tracking shot (masterfully executed by the way) and other flashy cinematic
flair.

What really seemed to piss off the media (and the television
industry in general) was the fact that Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment was
given a two year 44 episode guaranteed contract. Which is exactly what I would do
if I was the most successful filmmaker of all time. History, and recent
history—especially when it comes to genre shows—proves time and time again a
broadcast network will fuck you over any chance they get. So it was the smart move creatively to protect
the show. But this guaranteed contract also guaranteed a relentless drubbing
from resentful, bitter critics throughout the series’ two year run, especially
when the show was getting its ass kicked in the rating by that infallible
television juggernaut, CBS’s “Murder She Wrote”.

At this point
history, the beginnings of a serious Spielberg backlash were emerging.
Remember, “E.T.” had taken the world by storm in 1982, played in first run
theaters for over a year, and had just been re-released in the summer of 1985. “Back
to the Future” was the number one box office smash of the year and “The Goonies”
was already developing a serious cult following among children and young teens.
Although neither “Back to the Future” or “The Goonies” was actually directed by
Spielberg, his name was still above the title, and nobody outside of hardcore
film buffs knew who Robert Zemickis or Richard Donner were.

Add to that the uproar over the previous year’s controversial
“Gremlins” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, and the absolute outrage
among film and literature snobs over the fact Spielberg was directing an
adaption of “The Color Purple”, and you have the perfect storm brewing for a vicious
Spielberg backlash that lasted until 1993 when the director once and for all
(mostly) silenced his critics with the one-two punch of “Jurassic Park” and ‘Schindler’s
List”.

So the stage was set in the fall of 1985 for something to
bear the initial brunt of all of this venomous resentment that in some
Hollywood circles had been building from a decade earlier when the then 27
year-old wunderkind created the modern blockbuster with “Jaws”. Unfortunately,
that something became “Amazing Stories”.

As a result of all of this history, a false narrative about “Amazing
Stories” developed—a narrative that continues until this day. So let us set the
record straight.

Perhaps the greatest falsehood perpetuated about the series
was that the writing was atrocious and all of the stories terrible, and the
show was just excruciatingly awful.

To put it bluntly,
this is simply bullshit.

While “Amazing Stories” falls short of the 1960s classic
anthologies of the original “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits, it is far
superior to the any of “The Twilight Zone” reboots or glut of late 80s early
90s syndicated anthologies (“Tales From The Dark Side”, “The Hitchhiker” etc.).
Overall, I would put “Amazing Stories” on par with late 90s/early 2000s “The
Outer Limits” reboot or Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery”; uneven, but brilliant on
occasion, and always interesting and entertaining.

“Amazing Stories” featured writers such as “Back to the
Future” co-scribe Bob Gale (one of the best screenwriters of all time IMO),
Mick Garris (whose episode “The Amazing Falsworth” won an Emmy for God’s
sake!), Menno Meyjes (an Oscar nominated screenwriter), Michael McDowell, Anne
Spielberg, and one of the three greatest television genre writers of all time,
(along with Rod Serling and Harlan Ellison), Richard Matheson. Matheson also
served as the show’s second season story editor.

The talent behind the camera in the director’s chair reads
like an all-star team. Each episode was literally a piece of innovative short
filmmaking. The series brought cinematic techniques to the small screen with
young talents like Phil Joanua and Lesli Linka Glatter, as well as A-list
directors such as Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese, and Clint
Eastwood, Kevin Reynolds, Tobe Hooper, Danny DeVito, Peter Hyams, Bob Balaban, Brad Bird, and many more.

“Amazing Stories” also features hands down the best
collection of musical scores of all time of any television series ever!
Seriously. “Amazing Stories” features music by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith,
James Horner, Bruce Broughton, David Shire, Billy Goldenberg, Danny Elfman, Georges
Delerue, Pat Metheny, Leonard Rosenman, Alan Silvestri, and Michael Kamen, just
to name a few.

Outside of a few episodes I owned on Laser Disc, I have not
seen most of “Amazing Stories” since its initial run in the mid-80s. So I am
really looking forward to this blog series, and hope you will join me over the
next 45 weeks or so as I take a look back at this often overlooked and underrated
anthology series from the 1980s.

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About Me

James J. Caterino is a freelance writer based in South Florida. The wildly controversial scribe is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Action/Cut school of directing. He is the author of "Technicolor Dreams", "Battle of the Network Superheroes", "The B Girl", the "Caitlin Star" series, "Steel Phantom", "The Selfie", "The Last Neanderthal", "She", "Action Figure", "All About Amy", "Video Noir", "Among the Stars", hundreds of essays, movie, television, and music reviews, screenplays, short stories, and much more. Please visit Jamescaterino.com for more